Thanks, person who changed the blog theme and thus un-shitinated my posts

So I've made this voltorb 3D model for use in our 106/209 game, but having issues exporting from solidworks. Every time I try to import it into 3Ds it has a fit and changes the solid into a wireframe. It's really damn irritating because I was having none of these issues when I exported the headphones for 107. With the 3Ds trial gone, I had to try in smeaton, still no luck...

The first image is what voltorb looks like in solidworks right now, and the second one will be the coloured version once 3Ds decides to stop being a pos.

Download Links

The creations are available via the links below, although they did not reach their final stage of development, which would include interaction between markers and network play

Augmented Reality Pokemon (2D)

Augmented Reality Pokemon (3D)

The markers are available to be printed from here

Er my bad

Sorry about making this page look like shit. Couldn't be bothered/didn't have time to format properly after copypasta from my blog.

-Sidd

Environment.

I'm really not too sure what to write about this, as environment isn't a huge factor in our project. Basically we'll be doing this in a room environment. Most likely we'll have a desk with a layout similar to the Pokemon TCG with sides, and a nice even layout like this:

Obviously it won't be that well laid out, but somewhat similar. The room I guess will need to have a comfortable sitting atmosphere, low light for the projector and still air so all the cards don't blow around everywhere.

We'll be doing this in babbage 211 where there will be plenty of space for our project. Most likely we'll be using one of the tables sitting around, as they seem to have a suitable surface area for our game. We'll set up the laptop on one side, and allow plenty of room for the cards. Alternatively if this doesn't work, we can have a small USB webcam that can sit on the edge of one of the tables, this then linked to the laptop running our project in Flash, which'll be hooked up to the projector to allow everyone to see.

Deployment.

Now that I'm adding relevant titles to my posts, it should make it easier.

The basic gameplay is shown in the pictures below:

This is an example of the AR cards we'll use. They'll be printed off of course. These should come on the form of character and move cards. 

The above picture is a simulation of the webcam's output. This shows two AR character cards laid out on a table, and the AR generated Pokemon we'll have made 3D models of. In this example I've used Pikachu and Lickitung. 

Here we see the player use a move card with Pikachu. This causes Pikachu to attack Lickitung. The attack animations will pretty simple, usually with a slightly different maneuver for each different attack. However the animations for being attacked will be the same generic 'flinch'. All in all it's going to be pretty similar to that in this video:

The game mechanics will be more or less the same as the pokemon games on the game boy, with 4 different attack moves. Status reducing moves will reduce the opponent's defence (so your future attacks will deal more do more damage), and damaging moves will reduce the opponent's hit points. The original idea was to make something closer to the Pokemon trading card game, but that would prove too complex for such a short timeframe. The entire project will be demonstrated next week during the sessions. We'll have everything laid out on a desk and will use one of our laptops running the application (made using ARtoolkit and in Flash) with the webcam feed hooked up to the projector so everyone can see our awesomeness.

Sorry guys this is going to throw it all out of whack

Beth is posting things! Ahaha so I decided to do my part at the last minute. I know other people have done these sections too but this is my take on it. Copied and pasted from my blog entries made throughout today:

I'm going to chuck it all in one blog post so I'm going to put in a PAGE BREAK.

Research.

Artistic:

Ar has been used in many artisc ways. One being a sculptre made by Paulo Valbeuna, which is a series of cuboids. These cuboids are then overlaid with neon stroke, this gives off a 'Tron' like vibe.

http://thecreatorsproject.com/en-uk/blog/creativity-bytes-a-guide-to-augmented-reality-art-exhibits

The most amazing example of artistic AR I've seen is probably in Prague, where they had a projection mapped installation to commemorate their astrological clocktower's 600th aniversery. This used multiple projectors projecting on the clocktower describing its history. This shows how AR can be used to produce a breathtaking, engaging installation, while still being educational.

The 600 Years from the macula on Vimeo.

Industry:

One fantastic example of AR being used already is an Android application called Layar. This is a search engine based on location and AR. It takes input from the camera and applies locations via AR as shown in this video below:

Another example was a few months ago, if you bought a pack of Cheestrings you got a pack of cards. One of those cards had an AR code on it. Going on their website and downloading their software enabled you to view the AR content. here is an example of me doing so:

While the content isn't at all impressive (2D animation on a flat plane perpendicular to the card, it shows that companies are realizing the power of AR as an effective means of advertising. While now it's a rather novel technology, people are developing increasingly astounding ways of using it's power. For example this video shows how AR can be used in business cards:

The interactivity involved in this is brilliant, and with some behind the scenes code, ad the business cards 'connect' contact information could automatically be shared and saved between cards. A paper by Hirokazu Kato of Hiroshima City University published an article describing the method for a video based AR conferencing system.

Academic:

An amazing example of AR in academia is Word Lens for the iPhone. It's a translation application that overlays the translated text on top of the actual text. Using AR in this kind of educational manner is a really nice method of breaking language barriers and providing useful information to travelers going to foreign countries. Using this kind of technology to translate language at a level accessible commercially an incredible step forward in AR.

Finishing Touches

The project has now been modified to allow for multiple markers and simultaneous augmentations, and all that is left is the collaboration process. Animations and models created by the first year students will now be added to the Augmentation code provided by the second year students, to create the final product.

A Little post, Annoyances with AR

For Augmented reality to work, the device which views the world much have some sort of marker for it to place an image on, as we will have potentially several markers, this presents a challenge in that we have to get the, in this case, flash file to recognise several markers at once, and possibly have some interaction between them.

Hopefully flash will be happy with displaying several images on different markers at once, the interaction however, is a different matter.

For the interaction to work, something will have to be made to allow different markers to “recognise” other markers, thus allowing them to react in an appropriate way.
Without this, the visual side of the battles may be less than expected, but then at the base of this is still a card game, regardless of what you see.

Reflections.

The idea behind our project was to enliven and improve the experience of Pokemon cards. While there are many other trading card games, Pokemon seems to be the most well known one in this country. It's an entertaining game, which can be simple, or complex, depending on the players preferences. This makes it popular among children and adults, although many adults today play it for the nostalgic aspect. Either way, it's good fun. Card games have been around for a long time - and the format has remained relatively unchanged. By using augmented reality, we could really enhance the experience of players, and expand the audience of people interested in the game. It would be an entertaining experience, and possibly merge the ideas of video gaming and physical gaming together.

If we were to expand on the project, we could implement more interactivity with the creatures. If we were going to 'upgrade' the format of current Pokemon cards, it would be important to discover how that could be implemented. (Possibly with different AR markers for different attacks, and AR damage counters?)

The project has been a good experience. I'm glad we explored the idea - maybe in the future we could expand the project as described above. I also think experimenting with AR and teaching would be a very interesting topic to look at - perhaps we could merge the two.

I'm hoping that people will enjoy the project. It's not as developed as it could be, but I know it's been a large effort on the second years part. I have no clue about how to code the program, and I'm really grateful to work with people that know how! I'm hoping that although the project hasn't reached it's maximum potential (which would be totally re-creating the Pokemon card game) that viewers / users will still be able to enjoy and appreciate it.

If we were to fully develop our project and launch it into the 'real world', it would be interesting to demonstrate it at a conference or somewhere similar. Getting people's feedback and gathering some statistics, which could help us to improve the product could be really helpful. In the future, this might be something to think about (on a smaller, more realistic scale) for other projects (asking for other students opinions, etc).

Another improvement would be more detailed characters - I have a very limited knowledge of 3D design software, and if I were to learn more, I feel I could make something far better than I have done.

Specifications and Design.

Hopefully these ideas will allow us to ensure we get everything ticked off and completed, as well as showing us what the 'game' needs to do and ideas that go without saying, but are still important to document and make sure they're taken into account.

The idea/game/interactive display must:

Use a method of crossing over the physical and digital 'worlds'. This will be done by using AR markers, flash, and a webcam. We initially thought to use QR codes, but realised they could only be use to link to web pages, rather than display augmented reality information. (Although according to the video I found at the bottom of the page, it looks like this is changing).

Enable the user to view the characters in a 'real world' environment.

Be accessible to all age groups. The product should not contain any adult material, or anything that someone would find offensive. The product should be simple enough to entertain children, and complex enough to appeal to adults - perhaps in adults case, the product would be appealing because it is a memory from their childhood, and the technology is new - it could be especially interesting for older adults who have witnessed the long development processes of items like mobile phones.

Be a positive and enjoyable experience - the aim of the product is to be fun, interesting and engaging.

The idea/game/interactive display should:

Allow the user to view all angles of the creature displayed. They should be able to pick the marker up, and rotate the marker to view the creature from all sides. This will allow the user to feel part of the product, allowing them to experience AR first hand. This interactivity is an important aspect.

Use a variety of characters - one character would be a little boring. Ideally, all three characters would be able to be displayed on the screen at once, each using their own individual AR marker.

If the project were to be developed to its full potential, the outcome would be a totally 're-vamped' and updated version of a trading card game, allowing players to fight their creatures, have effects appear on the desk / other surface, and view a large spectrum of different creatures, with many animations.

N Building from Alexander Reeder on Vimeo.

Academia and AR.

There is potential for AR to be used as a learning tool. It could allow the user to experience things that would not usually be possible or available, letting the user engage in new environments. It would be useful in engaging learners, including helping those who find the usual reading and writing style of learning difficult. It could also be used as a training tool, maybe for organisations such as the army, allowing soldiers to train without the possibility of casualties.

In a similar way, AR can be used to assist people overcome fears, and aid in studying their behavior. A paper (Juani Bretón-López, Soledad Quero, Cristina Botella, Azucena García-Palacios, Rosa Maria Baños, Mariano Alcañiz. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking - An Augmented Reality System Validation for the Treatment of Cockroach Phobia. December 2010) details the use of AR in exposure therapy, which is used to assist people in overcoming deep phobias. The basic idea of exposure therapy is that the person with the phobia is exposed to the subject of that phobia, with the intensity building up over time, and nothing negative happening to them as a result of this exposure.

The paper talks about the use of cockroaches and AR - six participants, all with a phobia of cockroaches. When faced with the simulated cockroaches, they all reported strong negative feelings and anxiety. These feelings are (most likely) the same as when faced with real cockroaches. This leads to the possible use of AR in exposure therapy, which may be beneficial for treating other phobias, such as fear of flying or heights, without having to expose the sufferer to these situations first hand.

It's something to think about - could our project involve a message or function outside of being entertaining?

AR in Industry

With Augmented Reality, the lines between what is art, what is a commercial application, and what is an academic application are blurred - the technology is new, so the exploration of the topic is rather undefined. For example, all industrial applications could be perceived as somewhat arty and academic - it's hard to split the applications into distinct categories, as they are mostly interlinked. I'm going to be looking at a few various ways AR is used.

One commercial application of AR is the game for the PSP console, Invizimals. The objective of the game is to catch, level up, and battle creatures. The creatures are 'hunted' down by using a camera designed to be used with the PSP. The creatures are captured in the 'real world', with the camera taking the image in front of it (for example, your desk) and relaying it to the PSP's screen. Varying creatures are spawned, determined by the colour of surfaces and the time of day.
The creatures are 'captured' by placing a marker in front of the camera, on the creature.

AR has the potential to be a great way of gaming. Invizimals is a step in the right direction, but there are still a lot of rough edges. The game has been one of the first to really use AR as the main point of the game. Other consoles (Nintendo's 3DS) are beginning to use AR in some of their games too. However, right now, the use of AR with gaming is in it's early stages. There is a lot of potential here, and hopefully it will be improved upon in the next few years.

AR can also improve more traditional games. For a direct example to the project, Traditional Pokemon cards could be provided with AR codes, and can played with in the conventional format in front of a webcam, whilst running an AR application. This adds a new novel touch to the cards, and can potentially boost interest and sales. Nintendo were originally playing card manufacturers, therefore this project brings the development of the industry full-circle and holds a nostalgic appeal in this 'past meets present' approach.

The Next Stage

Now that the project has a basic form of Augmented Reality, this needs to be developed so that multiple markers can be used simultaneously, and feature animation. Whilst multiple markers are being implemented, Animated creatures are currently being created to feature on the markers. The project is now being created completely in Adobe Flash, by using the animation features readily available with the program and the FLARtoolkit, a software library for building Augmented Reality (AR) applications.

Progress!

Using Flash and Processing, our group has been trying to make the web cam of a computer pick up a code from a piece of A4 paper. When this works, we can move on to the next step, which is displaying the models on top of the paper...

We have success, thanks to Harry. :)

The Idea

We should combine three elements with this project - a game (board game, card game...), a technology, and a cultural issue. So the ideas we have are Pokemon, augmented reality, and possibly animal abuse?

Not entirely sure about the issue at the moment but hopefully we will come up with something.

The idea of our project is to use AR (with the use of a desk / surface / etc and a webcam / computer) to display characters. The characters can display different actions and interact with one another.

The aim of the project is to provide a fun, interactive experience with some kind of moral message / issue present.

I'm happy with our group - the second years we are working with seem interested in the topic/idea, and know a fair bit more than we do regarding how to implement our idea.

"Everyone has a shared vision, but each person shares a different vision." It's important that we make sure we are all on the same page, and share our ideas amongst each other, no matter how small the ideas are / rubbish they seem.

We have limitations on the project - we can't really afford any equipment of our own. I'm not sure about the others, but aside from making the little 'Pokemon' like creatures, and designing the cards, I don't know what I can  help out with. Those two things spring to mind when I think about what I can and want to do. I suppose for this project, we need to have a pretty simple set up - webcam, desk, cards, the 3D models, and the software / program to make it all work. All of that stuff, at least the physical stuff, seems accessible.

To give an idea of the kind of thing we are aiming for, here's a video: